It is known to provide an inflatable vehicle occupant protection device, such as an air bag, for helping to protect an occupant of a vehicle. One particular type of air bag is a frontal air bag inflatable between an occupant of a front seat of the vehicle and an instrument panel of the vehicle. Such air bags may be driver air bags or passenger air bags. When inflated, the driver and passenger air bags help protect the occupant from impacts with parts of the vehicle such as the instrument panel and/or a steering wheel of the vehicle.
Passenger air bags are typically stored in a deflated condition in a housing that is mounted to the vehicle instrument panel. An air bag door is connectable with the housing and/or instrument panel to help enclose and conceal the air bag in a stored condition. Upon deployment of the passenger air bag, the air bag door opens to permit the air bag to move to an inflated condition. The air bag door opens as a result of forces exerted on the door by the inflating air bag.
Driver air bags are typically stored in a deflated condition in a housing that is mounted on the vehicle steering wheel. An air bag cover is connectable with the housing and/or steering wheel to help enclose and conceal the air bag in a stored condition. Upon deployment of the driver air bag, the air bag cover opens to permit the air bag to move to an inflated condition. The air bag cover opens as a result of forces exerted on the cover by the inflating driver air bag.
Referring to FIG. 1, a known vehicle occupant protection system 200 can include a steering wheel mounted driver frontal air bag 202 and an instrument panel mounted passenger frontal air bag 204. When the vehicle 206 is involved in oblique or small overlap crashes, the passenger side occupant, whose head is indicated generally at 208, tends to move toward the passenger frontal air bag 204 at an angle, indicated generally by the arrow 210. When the occupant's head engages the air bag 204, as shown at 208′, the head can tend to roll off inboard, as indicated generally by the arrow 212, thus incurring a significant amount of head rotation, which can be detrimental.